Enigmatic Variations consists of Canadian works performed by Calgary-based violist Margaret Carey and pianist Roger Admiral (Centrediscs CMCCD 32723 cmccanada.org/product-category/recordings/Centrediscs), opening with a piece by Malcolm Forsyth (1936-2011), Steps for Viola and Piano (1978). Traditionally melodic and idiomatically well-suited to the viola, the five movements are self-explanatory: Buoyant, Strange Light, Violent, Colours and Jocular, all played adeptly by Carey and Admiral. Milton Barnes (1931-2001) is featured on three tracks, Ballade for Solo Viola (1978) and Lament and Hymn Tune Pavane for Viola and Piano (1976). Barnes was a traditionalist by nature who was schooled in the 12-tone tradition but chose to avoid avant-garde idioms in favour of tonally based expression. The pieces included here, especially Ballade, are playfully rhythmic and melodic, at times reminiscent of childhood chants and songs. 

The title of the disc is taken from a 2021 work commissioned from Sean Clarke (b.1983). Clarke and Carey both studied at Mount Royal University Conservatory and the variations are inspired by the “virtuosity, playing and teaching style” of several of their teachers and colleagues, as well as a landscape drawing by Carey featuring Canadian flora and fauna imbedded in a Peruvian Inca Cross. Apart from occasional sharp outbursts, the variations remain as dark and enigmatic as the opening theme. 

The most substantial work on this disc is the Viola Concerto Op.75 by one of the most prolific composers from Quebec, Jacques Hétu (1938-2010). Hétu composed 16 concerted works for most of the instruments usually found in an orchestra and several that are not, such as ondes Martinon, amplified guitars and marimba, plus a Rondo for cello and string orchestra and a Symphonie concertante for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon and strings. Not to mention four full symphonies. I don’t believe any Canadian composer has come close to this orchestral output. The Viola Concerto (performed here in a piano reduction) is in four contrasting movements. Although Admiral does a fine job with the piano accompaniment, the lush colours of Hétu’s original orchestration are a bit lost in the translation. Carey’s solo viola is however, here as throughout the disc, full and present with all the nuance we would expect. 

In response to Carey’s request for a solo viola work, Stewart Grant (b.1948) transcribed his Two Poems – Breath of Life and The Rear View Mirror – originally composed for cello (2004). The disc concludes with a second 2021 commission, A Three Dog Night by the youngest composer represented here, Benjamin Sajo (b.1988). It’s another contemplative work, with the piano and dark-hued viola line perfectly balanced. 

Another Canadian disc that has been in frequent rotation here this past month is Kevin Lau: Under a Veil of Stars featuring the St. John | Mercer | Park Trio (Leaf Music LM273 leaf-music.ca). Born in 1988, Lau is on track to give Jacques Hétu a run for the money in orchestral output. An almost ubiquitous figure on the GTHA music scene, Lau has served as composer-in-residence or affiliate composer with the Toronto, Mississauga and Niagara Symphony Orchestras, the Banff Centre and currently, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. In addition, his works have been performed by the National Arts Centre, Winnipeg Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic and Tampa Bay Symphony Orchestras and the National Ballet of Canada, for which he has composed two major works. This release is devoted to his chamber music, including works for piano trio and subsets thereof. 

The extended title work is in three movements that are evocatively brought to life in the music: The Stars are Never Still; Land of Poison Trees and In that Shoreless Ocean. In his intimate program note Lau describes the impetus for the work, and how it changed with the death of the dedicatee, violinist Yehonatan Berick. Berick, along with his life partner cellist Rachel Mercer and pianist Angela Park comprised the AYR Trio who commissioned the work. Lau says the three movements depict a life cycle chronicling childhood, adulthood and old age. Renowned soloist and chamber musician Scott St. John has taken on the emotionally difficult task of replacing Berick in this trio’s configuration, not only in the trio works but also in Intuitions No.2, a violin and cello duo written for Berick and Mercer, and If Life Were a Mirror for violin and piano. This latter work comprises reflections on Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror), in which we hear numerous echoes of familiar tunes from Bach and other icons, “musical artifacts that reflect one another like a hall of mirrors.” The former was composed as part of a set of pieces designed to be played by partners living in the same bubble during the pandemic lockdowns, and the latter was completed just before the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The other trio works include two from 2007, Piano Trio No.1 and Timescape Variations, and A Simple Secret from 2019. The Dreamer for solo piano fills out the disc. Mercer and Park have worked together in various combinations over many years, including the piano quartet Ensemble Made in Canada, and their compatibility and intuitive partnership are on fine display here. St. John’s playing fits with these two like a glove, partly I’m sure due to Lau’s idiomatic and skilfully crafted music. A very satisfying release.

Gerald Cohen – Voyagers presents chamber music by this American composer performed by the Cassatt String Quartet with guest soloists Narek Arutyunian (clarinets) and trombonist Colin Williams (innova 090 innova.mu). Cohen (b.1960) is a Jewish cantor and professional baritone as well as a composer and his music often reflects his religious roots. Playing for Our Lives was written for the Cassatt for a 2012 concert devoted to music by composers interned at the Nazi concentration camp Terezin (Theresienstadt) near Prague. The quartet asked for a contemporary memorial and tribute to the musical life at that place, a transit camp on the road to Auschwitz and other death camps. The three movements draw on material related to Terezin: a Yiddish folk song Beryozkele (Little Birch Tree) which had also been set by Viktor Ullmann who perished in Auschwitz; a lullaby from Hans Krasa’s children’s opera Brundibar, composed and performed at Terezin; and Verdi’s Requiem, a piece championed at the camp by conductor Rafael Schachter, from which Cohen fashioned his Dies Irae (Day of Wrath). The music is at once angry, contemplative, full of angst, uplifting and haunting, ultimately ending in sublime quietude. 

The title work for clarinet and string quartet is a tribute to the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 and headed to the outer reaches of the solar system. It was inspired by the music of the Voyager Golden Record, an audio time capsule intended to give extraterrestrial beings an impression of human culture on Planet Earth. Cohen “chose several of these [sound samples]: a Beethoven string quartet (Cavatina), an Indian raga (Bhairavi) and a Renaissance dance (Galliard), weaving them together in a composition that celebrates humanity’s quest to explore the universe, and the power of music to express the rich emotions and cultures of human life.” The final movement Beyond the Heliosphere brings back aspects of the first three using the Beethoven as its central element and ending with a direct quote from the Cavatina of Beethoven’s Op.130 quartet before fading out with a repeated high note from the bass clarinet “as if the signal of the Voyager keeps going, ever fainter, as it continues its interstellar voyage.” 

The disc ends with Preludes and Debka, written in 2001 for the unusual combination of trombone and string quartet. Three contrasting preludes lead to the concluding debka, a Middle Eastern dance popular in both Arab and Israeli communities, introduced by a trombone cadenza. This finale is “mostly lively and playful, eventually becoming rather wild before reprising the debka theme at the conclusion” bringing this intriguing and sometimes surprising disc to an end. 

The early 20th century was an exciting time in the development of European concert music, with a plethora of new approaches. With Divergent Paths – Schoenberg & Ravel (Azica ACD-71360 azica.com) the Telegraph Quartet has embarked on a project to present and juxtapose some of these diverse directions. Although born one year apart, Ravel (1875-1937) and Schoenberg (1874-1951) could in many ways not be farther apart, and the same could be said of the quartets presented here, written around the same time (1902 and 1907 respectively). The excellent and extensive liner notes claim that this is the first time the two have been recorded together, and point out that they rarely, if ever, appear on the same concert program. Following in the footsteps of Debussy’s quartet of a decade earlier, Ravel’s is the epitome of French Impressionism while Schoenberg’s expanded tonality points the way to his later development of the 12-note system adopted by the Second Viennese School; together they paint a telling portrait of the changing times. Although there is some sturm und drang in the vif et agité final movement of the Ravel, the overall impression is that of beauty and balance. Schoenberg’s String Quartet No.1 in D Minor, Op.7 starts stormily, in the relative minor key to Ravel’s F Major, making a good case for their pairing, but there the similarities stop. There is a lushness in the Schoenberg, especially in the third movement, but it is a much darker mood than the mostly playful Ravel. Heard now, more than a century after it was composed, the Schoenberg no longer sounds shockingly abrasive and there is even a Romantic sensibility in its quieter moments, making me wonder why it is still so infrequently heard in the concert hall. Fortunately, there are a number of historic recordings available of Schoenberg’s four quartets by the likes of the Juilliard, LaSalle, New Vienna, Schoenberg and Pražák string quartets. Hopefully this committed and thoroughly nuanced performance by the Telegraph Quartet will bring this first to a wider audience. I look forward to where they take us next in their exploration of Divergent Paths. 

Although relegated to obscurity in recent decades, the prolific composer Leopold van der Pals is currently undergoing a renaissance, thanks in large part to the efforts of cellist Tobias van der Pals, the great-grandson of Leopold’s younger brother, conductor Nikolaj. Leopold was born in St Petersburg in 1884. His father was the Dutch consul there, while his Danish-born maternal grandfather was Julius Johannsen – composer, music theorist, professor at and later director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Music had a central role in the van der Pals home, where the composers Glazunov and Tchaikovsky were regular guests, and it was on Glazunov’s recommendation that the young Leopold began his tuition as a composer. At Rachmaninoff’s suggestion he went to study with Reinhold Glière in Berlin, under whose tutelage he completed a symphony that was accepted for performance by the Berlin Philharmonic, an auspicious beginning indeed. The outbreak of WWI forced him to leave Germany and the October Revolution in Russia meant he could not return there either. Van der Pals settled in Switzerland where he remained until his death in 1966.  

Tobias van der Pals has been immersed in his great uncle’s life and legacy for more than 20 years and in 2018 had the opportunity to move Leopold’s entire archive to Copenhagen. There are now over 700 compositions being prepared for publication by Edition Wilhelm Hansen with Tobias as editor. Following a CD of orchestral works and another of solo concertos, CPO has recently released Leopold van der Pals – String Quartets Vol.1 performed by the Van Der Pals Quartet, of which Tobias is a member (CPO 555 282-2 vanderpalsquartet.com). Van der Pals completed six quartets and the first three are included here, along with a brief late work, In Memoriam Marie Steiner. Born a decade after Ravel and Schoenberg, he too wrote his first quartet around the age of 30, beginning it shortly after his move to Switzerland. That decade seems to have made a difference in the confluence of styles, and in van der Pals’ writing we see something of a blending of the cultural differences of the elder masters. 

Although van der Pals returned to the medium at several points in his life, the first three quartets were completed within a span of a dozen years. Strangely he didn’t publish the second and only heard a fragment of it performed in his lifetime. It was given its world premiere by this ensemble in 2018. The lyrical third quartet dates from 1929 and was very well received by public and critics alike as, it seems, was all his music. This makes its disappearance during the latter part of the century even harder to fathom. Kudos to Tobias van der Pals and his colleagues and to the folks at CPO for bringing these forgotten gems to light. I am eager to hear more.

I had hoped to include one more disc, but I see I have run out of space so I will just give it honourable mention here. Stravinsky | Poulenc | Debussy (LAWO Classics LWC1260 lawo.no) features excellent performances by Norwegian cellist Amalie Stalheim and pianist Christian Ihle Hadland of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, an arrangement of Baroque-inspired dances extracted from his ballet Pulcinella, and cello sonatas by Poulenc and Debussy, the latter being one of the Impressionist master’s final works. A collection to treasure, with immaculate sound, balance and ensemble playing. 

We invite submissions. CDs, DVDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, The WholeNote c/o Music Alive, The Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4 or to discoveries@thewholenote.com.

With the July release of her new CD Eugène Ysaÿe Six Sonatas for Violin Solo Op.27 violinist Hilary Hahn celebrates the centenary of these remarkable and challenging works, each dedicated to a younger contemporary of the aging Belgian composer (Deutsche Grammophon 00028948641765 store.deutschegrammophon.com/p51-i0028948641765/hilary-hahn/eugene-ysa-e-six-sonatas-for-violin-solo-op-27/index.html).

The impetus for their composition was Ysaÿe’s experiencing a performance of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas by the young Joseph Szigeti in 1923. Like the Bach cycle, the Ysaÿe set starts with a G-Minor work and ends with one in E Major. Szigeti is the dedicatee of the first; Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler, Mathieu Crickboom and Manuel Quiroga are the other five.

Hahn spent seven years studying at the Curtis Institute with Jascha Brodsky, the last living student of Ysaÿe, so has a direct link with these sonatas. As always, her playing is remarkably strong and quite brilliant, anchored by flawless technique and a profound musicality.  

The reasoning behind the digital-only release from Leaf Music featuring Orchestre Symphonique Laval principal violist Fédéric Lambert and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal principal double bassist Ali Kian Yazdanfar is that Iridescence – the variability in an object’s colour when you change the viewing angle – here refers to our viewing the two instruments from a different perspective (LM268 leaf-music.ca).

The duet works are Evan Chambers’ 1997 The Fisherstreet Duo, Efraín Oscher’s 2008 Escenas del Sur and the 2000 three-movement Duo for Viola and Double Bass by the Welsh composer Gareth Wood.

Each player has a solo piece, completely different in style and effect. Lambert’s is the quiet, contemplative in manus tuas, a 2009 work by Caroline Shaw based on a Thomas Tallis motet and originally written for solo cello, but Yazdanfar steals the show with the dazzling Thème Varié pour Contrebasse solo, a 1976 composition by Jean Françaix with variations built on trills, sixteenth notes, double stops, pizzicato and harmonics.

Listen to 'Iridescence' Now in the Listening Room

I’m not sure exactly what the reasoning was behind the selection of works on Mythes, the latest CD from violinist James Ehnes and his regular pianist partner Andrew Armstrong, but there’s no doubting the quality of the recital of two major works and a series of encore pieces (ONYX4234 onyxclassics.com/release/james-ehnes-andrew-armstrong-mythes).

When Szymanowski wrote his Mythes Op.30 in 1915 he felt that he and the violinist Pavel Kochanski were developing a new mode of expression for the instrument. Certainly the three sensuous pieces are full of brilliantly coloured and nuanced violin effects, all superbly captured by Ehnes.

The original keyboard part for Handel’s Sonata in D Major HWV371 exists only as a figured bass line, with Armstrong here using a version that the duo has essentially adapted from various performing editions. A varied selection of seven encores completes the CD: Kreisler’s arrangements of a Tchaikovsky Chant sans paroles and Grainger’s Molly on the Shore; Heifetz’s arrangements of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee and Ponce’s Estrellita; James Newton Howard’s brief 133...At Least; Josef Suk’s Burleska; and the Sicilienne attributed to Maria Theresa von Paradis.

When pianist Kit Armstrong and violinist Renaud Capuçon played all 16 of the mature Mozart violin sonatas at the Mozart Week festival in Salzburg in 2016 Capuçon says that they “knew at once that we wanted to record them.” The result is the outstanding four CD box set of Mozart: Sonatas for Piano & Violin, works that mark Mozart’s development of the genre from keyboard sonatas with violin accompaniment to the fully fledged violin sonatas of the nineteenth century. The 12 Variations in G Major on “La bergère Célimène K359 and the 6 Variations in G Minor on “Hélas! j’ai perdu mon amant” K360 complete disc two (Deutsche Grammophon 486 4463 deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/mozart-sonatas-for-piano-violin-capucon-armstrong-12981).

Armstrong’s booklet note perfectly describes their approach and the result: “However, we did not historicize in our playing: on the contrary, it was particularly rewarding to see beauties brought forth by later techniques blossom in Mozart’s music. When I hear Renaud render Mozart’s lyrical flights with all the sumptuousness and refinement that modern violin playing can have, I am convinced: it is beautiful, and that is what matters.”  

Bach’s sonatas for violin and piano, predating Mozart’s by some 60 years, are essentially extensions of the Baroque trio sonata. Probably dating from 1720-23 during his time at Cöthen, they were reworked in later years but never published in his lifetime. Several contemporary manuscripts exist, but no autograph copy. They are presented on a 2CD set by violinist Ambroise Aubrun with Mireille Podeur on harpsichord on J.S. BACH Sei suonate a Cembalo certato e Violino solo (Six Sonatas for Obbligato Harpsichord and Violin BWV1014-1019) (Hortus 228-229 editionshortus.com).

The idiomatic performances are delicate and refined, perhaps a bit lacking in warmth. An excellent booklet essay by Podeur with some fascinating technical insight adds to a top-notch release.

On Spanish Light the violinist Franscisco Fullana returns to his Andalusian roots in an outstanding recital with the Spanish pianist Alba Ventura (Orchid Classics ORC100250 orchidclassics.com).

Turina’s Violin Sonata No.2 Op.82, Sonata española from 1934 incorporates Andalusian and gypsy melodies in a work that also shows the influence of Turina’s studies in Paris. Sarasate’s Romanza andaluza is from the second volume of Spanish Dances Op.22, while his Zigeunerweisen Op.20, originally for violin and orchestra is heard in the piano arrangement made by the composer and recorded by him with one of the three Catalan composers featured here, Joan Manén (1883-1971) in 1904.

Written for Jacques Thibaud, the single movement Granados Violin Sonata H.127 is a real gem; of uncertain date, it wasn’t published until 1971. The two movements IV Oració al Maig and VI La font are from the Seis sonetos of 1921-22 by Eduardo Toldrà (1895-1962). The Manén piece is his terrific Caprice catalán No.3 Op.23.

The traditional Catalan Christmas song El cant dels ocells (Song of the Birds) adapted by Fullana from the Pablo Casals cello arrangement, ends a superb disc.

If you like putting on a CD and just relaxing to a stream of beautifully played popular melodies then you should love Estrellita, the new album of “a selection of encores:  small but sparkling gems of the repertoire” from Korean cellist Hee-Young Lim and Chinese pianist Chuhui Liang (Orchid Classics ORC100227 orchidclassics.com).

Sandwiched between Saint-Saëns’ The Swan and Schubert’s Ave Maria are two pieces by Ravel, including the Pavane pour une infante défunte, two by Tchaikovsky, including the Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Godard’s Berceuse from Jocelyn, Amy Beach’s Romance, Rubinstein’s Melodie, the Ponce title track and pieces by Liszt, Debussy, Brahms and Ysaÿe. The Liszt, Brahms and Beach arrangements are by the cellist. BBC Music Magazine noted the warmth and expressiveness of her tone, “which is of truly rare beauty.” Indeed it is, across the full range of the instrument.

Butterfly Lovers, the popular violin concerto at the heart of the new CD from Joshua Bell with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under Tsung Yeh (Sony Classical 19658810972 joshuabell.com) was written in 1959 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, two students at the Shanghai Conservatory. Despite its use of Chinese folk melodies and pentatonic scales it was scored for a standard late-Romantic symphony orchestra, presumably to widen its appeal beyond China’s borders.

Here, though, it’s performed in a rarely heard arrangement by Yan Huichang and Ku Lap-Man for an orchestra of traditional Chinese instruments, the only Western exceptions being cellos, double basses, harp and some of the percussion section. Described as being more of a rediscovery than a mere reorchestration, it’s a remarkable listening and musical experience, making you wish – unrealistically, it must be said – that this could be the standard performing edition.

Bell and Yeh don’t stop there, however, presenting the three other works on the disc in arrangements for the same orchestra. Massenet’s Méditation from Thaïs doesn’t sound a whole lot different, but the Saint-Saëns Introduction et rondo capriccioso in A Minor Op.28 and Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen Op.20 certainly display a quite different and fascinating tonal palette. Bell’s beautifully subtle phrasing seems to mirror the Oriental nature of the soundscape.

Although it was released in January the CD Woven Lights, featuring the Violin Concerto and the Chaconne for electric violin (five strings) and electronics by Italian composer Vito Palumbo (b.1972) only recently came to my attention (BIS-2625 bis.se).

The 2015 Violin Concerto was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in September 2016 with soloist Francesco D’Orazio and the London Symphony Orchestra under Lee Reynolds. It’s a quite fascinating work, albeit difficult to describe; in the booklet notes the description is “a work of bittersweet lyricism,” the composer himself noting the echoes of Alban Berg, especially towards the end of the piece.

D’Orazio recorded the two-part Chaconne of 2019-20 in Italy in January 2021 and it is much more difficult to assess objectively. Francesco Abbrescia realizes the sampled sounds and electronics in I. Woven Lights, where the chaconne principle of variation in the opening section gradually transforms into a dialogue with initially sparse electronics that become thicker and denser, while II. The Glows in the Dark is for electric violin and 30 pre-recorded electronic violin parts, pre-recorded by the same performer. 

Listen to 'Woven Lights' Now in the Listening Room

The Danish String Quartet completes a journey of almost eight years with PRISM V – Beethoven Webern Bach, the final volume in a series where connections are drawn from a Bach fugue through one of the five late Beethoven quartets to a quartet by a later master – “a beam of music split through Beethoven’s prism” (ECM New Series 2565 485 8469 ecmrecords.com).

Beethoven drew many melodic motifs from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier for his late quartets. The opening track here is the Chorale prelude Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit BWV668. The Beethoven is the String Quartet No.16 in F Major Op.135, and the later master is the young Anton Webern, whose richly chromatic 1905 String Quartet, written while he was studying with Arnold Schoenberg quotes the Op.135 and also shows the influence of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.

Bach’s unfinished Contrapunctus XIV from The Art of Fugue brings a superb series to a somehow perfectly appropriate conclusion. “We have worked hard on these pieces for almost a decade,” say the quartet members, “and we have done our best.” 

Their best is simply as good as you could wish to hear.

Two complementary and contemporaneous works are presented on Dvořák String Quartet Op.106, Coleridge-Taylor Fantasiestücke in beautiful performances by the Takács Quartet (Hyperion CDA6813 hyperion-records.co.uk/r.asp).

Coleridge-Taylor made three trips to the United States, and his use of indigenous American melodies shows an affinity with Dvořák, who was a major influence. His 5 Fantasiestücke Op.5 though, is a competent and pleasant early work, written when he was a student at the Royal College of Music in London.

The Dvořák String Quartet No.13 in G Major Op.106 was the first composition written after his return from America in 1895 and reflects his happiness at being home again. Completing the CD is Dvořák’s Andante appassionato B40a from 1873, the original slow movement from an early A-Minor quartet listed as Op.12 and discarded when the composer revised the work. 

As always, there’s faultless, gorgeous playing from this superb ensemble.

On Earthdrawn Skies the Aizuri Quartet explores deep connections between humans and the natural world with music that “draws from the earth as it reaches upward and outward” (Azica ACD-71359 azica.com).

Hildegard von Bingen’s chant Columba aspexit is heard in Alex Fortes’ commissioned arrangement which cleverly builds through a series of solos, duets and trios to a full-group unison.

The String Quartet No.1 by the British-Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga is described as an exploration of the cosmos, launching us into space with jagged rhythms and melodies, contemplating the star-filled sky and energetically returning to earth. 

The Armenian composer and ethnomusicologist Komitas Vardapet is represented by Sergei Aslamazian’s arrangement of five Armenian Folk Songs, and an excellent CD ends with the Sibelius String Quartet in D Minor Op.56, Voces Intimae, written in self-imposed isolation in Aiola while he tried to overcome the alcoholism that plagued him in Helsinki and reconnect with his natural surroundings.

Guitarist Emma Rush grew up in Hamilton, Ontario and had a family connection to the Canadian Impressionist painter William Blair Bruce, whose paintings she saw in the homes of her grandparents and aunts. In 2020 she commissioned seven new Canadian compositions inspired by Bruce’s paintings, and her new CD A Dream of Colour – Music inspired by the paintings of William Blair Bruce is the result (emma-rush.com).

The subject paintings are beautifully reproduced in colour in the CD booklet, accompanied by a brief note by the composers – Christine Donkin, Amy Brandon, Dale Kavanagh, Craig Visser (a striking piece for guitar and tape), christina volpini, Daniel Medizadeh and Jeffrey McFadden.

Rush is an outstanding player, and her beautifully clean, sensitive and nuanced interpretations of exquisite additions to the contemporary Canadian guitar repertoire, beautifully recorded and presented, make for a terrific disc.

El último aliento (The last breath), the new CD from the Hungarian guitarist Zsófia Boros features music from Argentina and the compositions of the contemporary French composer Mathias Duplessy (ECM New Series 2769 485 8302 ecmrecords.com).

There are six pieces by Duplessy: De rêve et de pluie, Le secret d’Hiroshigé, Le labyrinthe de Vermeer, Berceuse, Valse pour Camille and Perle de Rosée.  All display Duplessy’s distinctive Romanticism, a mix of traditional tonality with contemporary forms and structure.

Four Argentinian composers are featured, with Quique Sinesi’s El abrazo and Tormenta de ilusión of particular interest: for the former, Boros stretches a rubber band over the fretboard to mute the sound, and for the latter switches from guitar to ronroco, an instrument from the Andean region with ten strings in five double-courses.

Joaquin Alem’s Salir adentro, Ginastera’s Milonga and the title track by the Buenos Aires composer and guitarist Carlos Moscardini complete a CD of quiet, atmospheric music, all played with warmth, sensitivity and admirable technique.

We usually encounter guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan with his New Lullaby Project CDs, but his tenth solo album, Spanish Candy reflects his work with the Spanish classical music and flamenco dance ensemble ¡Con Fuego!, which reimagines Spanish classical compositions with flamenco techniques and flavours while also adding flamenco works to the standard repertoire (Tiger Turn 888-10 alcguitar.com).

There are three pieces by Albéniz here – Zambra Granadina and Larget-Caplan’s own arrangements of Sevilla and Granada – Five Pieces by Tárrega, including Recuerdos de la Alhambra, the flamenco solo Mantilla de Feria by Esteban de Sanlúcar, and Larget-Caplan’s arrangement of Pascual Marquina’s España Cañi.

Larget-Caplan’s aim to “juxtapose the fiery passions of flamenco with the subtle colors and harmonic riches of classical music” results in an entertaining – if somewhat brief at 33 minutes – CD.

Art Choral Vol. 4 – Classique
Ensemble ArtChoral; Matthias Maute; Ilya Poletaev
ATMA ACD2 2423 (atmaclassique.com/en)

Some choirs and their musical projects have clearly defined areas of focus. Others, such as Ensemble ArtChoral, directed by Matthias Maute, think bigger: the ArtChoral series is a unique and ambitious three-year, 11-volume project surveying the history of choral singing over six centuries, from the Renaissance to the present day. Classique, the fourth release in the series, focuses on the Classical era and contains music by Gasparini, Bierey, Haydn and Mozart, accompanied by fortepianist Ilya Poletaev. 

Much of the music on this disc was composed for liturgical use, including Johann Michael Haydn’s Agnus Dei, Bierey’s Kyrie (which is based on the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” piano sonata) and Mozart’s ubiquitous Ave Verum Corpus, as well as a set of fascinating vocal trios and quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn. This thoughtful programming provides a convincing overview of the era’s styles and sounds through smaller forms, at a time when much of the choral music being composed was large scale, such as the masses and oratorios of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Ensemble ArtChoral is in fine form throughout, and their skillful approach to this music is apparent from the first notes. Using the fortepiano as the sole source of accompaniment is a thought-provoking choice, with its unique timbre and relatively inflexible dynamic range leading to an increased attention toward expressive boundaries; the listener must reorient themselves to understand that, while they are still hearing the juxtaposition of fortes and pianos, the extremes are less pronounced than might be expected from performances with modern instruments.

It is a monumental task to summarize six centuries of anything, let alone such a vast expanse of composers and their music; Ensemble ArtChoral continues to prove that they are up to the challenge with Classique.

Listen to 'Art Choral Vol. 4 – Classique' Now in the Listening Room

At First Light
Exultate Chamber Singers
Independent (exultate.net)

One of Canada’s top chamber choirs, the Exultate Chamber Singers is a Toronto-based ensemble dedicated to showcasing new Canadian choral music through commissioning and programming. While there are some who consider all music of the 20th century to be contemporary, Exultate commits itself to music that is truly contemporary, as demonstrated with their recent recording At First Light.

Consisting of eight works written by Canadian composers between 2018 and 2021 – seven of which were commissioned by Exultate – At First Light provides a glimpse into some of the wonderful music being written by both emerging and established composers in our country. There is a wide range of compositional diversity here, with texts taken from many sources including Malay lyricist Mohamad Fairuz bin Mohamad Tauhid, the Lebanese-American Kahlil Gibran, as well as Shakespeare and Yeats, set by an equally diverse range of composers.

Unlike the “modernist” music of Schoenberg and Stockhausen, this modern music is largely tonal, with a freedom of technique and expression that has been gathered and distilled from centuries of musical history and returned to its listeners in new, creative forms. Ethereal harmonic textures are the primary musical vernacular here, but each composer’s individual approach ensures that each work is unique unto itself. Whether Matthew Emery’s brief yet profound Be Still, My Heart, Mari Alice Conrad’s atmospheric At First Light, or the rhythmically delightful Speak to Us of Joy by Ecuadorian Canadian Sami Anguaya, there is a variety of styles and techniques on display which provide a distinctively wide-ranging and satisfying listening experience from beginning to end.

A robust and enthusiastic exposition of contemporary Canadian content, Exultate’s At First Light reminds us that there is much to celebrate here at home with regards to classical music. Although its death has been signaled many times over the last half-century, the presence of such gifted composers and interpreters indicates that there is indeed a future for this genre that will be defined not by survival, but rather by successes yet unimagined.

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The Folly of Desire
Ian Bostridge; Brad Mehldau
Pentatone PTC 5187 035 (pentatonemusic.com)

Since his emergence onto the international jazz scene in the early 1990s, Brad Mehldau’s evolution as a gifted, inspired artist has been nothing but breathtaking. In addition to his now legendary jazz piano chops, Mehldau has explored and extended himself into many music modalities, and with his new release, created in tandem with noted tenor vocalist and musical interpreter, Ian Bostridge, Mehldau straddles several genres here in a bewitching sojourn into this powerful song cycle that plumbs the limits of sexual freedom in a post-#MeToo political age. Taking inspiration from the poetry of Blake, Yeats, Shakespeare, Brecht, Goethe and Cummings, this 16-track, diverse program also includes jazz standards and a foray into German Lieder.

First up is The Sick Rose – languid and gossamer, Bostridge’s rich tenor encircles the potent poetry of William Blake, while Mehldau weaves a world of fog and delight through his pianistic/artistic skill. Leda and the Swan is a central theme of this song cycle, and is drawn from a Greek myth, while the text comes from Yeats, and depicts a brutal rape – the denying of free will and transfiguration of a false god for venal pleasure. Mehldau rides the roller coaster of emotion and crashes into Yeats’ deepest meaning. A highlight of the cycle is the boys I mean are not refined. The poetry of ee cummings takes a jaundiced look at amoral young men. While Mehldau again creates a profound mood and, through his incomparable vocal instrument, Bostridge wrings every last bit of meaning out of the disturbing text. A triumph of artistic sensibility and skill. 

Of special, luminous beauty are the duo’s take on These Foolish Things, and the rarely performed gem, In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. The almost unbearable beauty of Mehldau’s piano is evident throughout, and he remains one of the most profound and original artists of his (or any) time.

Gayle Young – According to the Moon
Sarah Albu; Gayle Young
farpoint recordings fp088 (farpointrecordings.com)

Southern Ontario musician, composer, experimental instrument maker and author Gayle Young (b.1950) has been continually active since the 1970s, though it feels like recognition of her music has ramped up in the last decade. Last year’s release, As Trees Grow featured piano-centred compositions infused with field recordings of natural sounds. 

Her latest seven-track album According to the Moon, subtitled “Sarah Albu performs vocal works by Gayle Young, 1978-2021” showcases the human voice in its manifold guises. These range from extended voice techniques, spoken word and sprechstimme to classical singing and everything in between. In some works Young appears to invite Montreal-based Albu to shape her virtuoso performances on the formants and rhythms of spoken language.

In the evocative Ancient Ocean Floor (2021) the voice is supported by a field recording of a waterfall filtered through resonant tubes. The texture is further enriched by Young’s nuanced performance on the amaranth, a bowed koto-like instrument with flexible tuning of her own design.

Albu’s vocalism in Tea Story (2012) is selectively emphasized by electronic resonance filters and frequency shifters. And in Vio-Voi (1978) Geneviève Liboiron’s violin plays an effective counterpoint with Albu’s controlled soprano, demonstrating the significant role of instruments in this ostensibly vocal album.

Young’s serious maverick/experimental composer street cred is rooted in her teachers’ musical family tree which reaches back to Harry Partch, Charles Ives and beyond. The mature, sometimes challenging, works spanning four decades presented on According to the Moon amply underscore the aesthetic consistency and longevity of Young’s artistic vision and achievement.

Rough Magic
Roomful of Teeth
New Amsterdam NWAM172 (roomfulofteeth.org)

One of the fiercest contemporary proponents of pushing the boundaries of the human voice, this group is beyond sole creativity; the level of skill and musicianship of the Grammy-winning vocal supergroup Roomful of Teeth demonstrates a cohesiveness only possible within a collective of beings who know each other very, very well. Rough Magic features premiere recordings of four works co-created with the group and simply explodes out of the gate.

From the very opening of William Britelle’s Psychedelics 1. Deep Blue (You Beat Me) the traditional harmonies are bursting with tones, lyrics and extended techniques that draw you into a world of vocal sound and texture that unless you are familiar with this premier contemporary vocal group you will likely have never heard before. In three movements, the piece explores what the composer notes as “an attempt…to reckon with a psychological breakdown that I experienced as a young adult, and to parallel that with the seemingly apocalyptic strains of our current collective state…” The movements Deep Blue (You Beat Me), I am the Watchtower and My Apothecary Light include cultural references thrown about which beautifully illustrate the chaos of memory and time.

For the opening of Eve Beglarian’s None More Than You, the composer asked the ensemble “to try to utter the most famous text about words in Western culture, the opening of the Gospel of John, using only consonants,” a fascinating opening that evolves to colours of crystalline traditional harmonies unbound and include pressure breathing that was felt throughout. Caroline Shaw’s five-movement work The Isle references Shakespeare’s stage direction in The Tempest, and makes beautiful use of Shaw’s trademark murmurs, audible breaths and shifting timbres imbuing recitations of text. Peter S. Shin’s Bits Torn From Words is simply stunning, a brilliant and vivid painting of the mental health condition of generalized anxiety disorder, painfully manifested with tentative, wavering, quivering and passionate lyrics. The composer includes the use of Korean tradition of p’ansori, a vocal technique which needs expert care to avoid vocal damage. The movement Reach Across Oceans was my favourite track of the album. 

The imaginative, playful photos and thoughtful artwork are an artful introduction to the group, and if you have a chance to look up the short video demos to several of the pieces (available on the group’s website via Vimeo) you will be rewarded with the most enjoyable micro-sized films that really blossom with the textures and lyrics. With this album Roomful of Teeth has broken even their own boundaries; this is truly a contemporary vocal ensemble whose ferocious attitude defies its delicate balance with dedication to excellence. Hold on to your hats and enjoy exploring this fantastic recording.

Anguille sous roche (Marais; Couperin; Rameau)
Les Voix Humaines
ATMA ACD2 2858 (atmaclassique.com/en)

Monreal-based viol de gambists Susie Napper and Margaret Little formed a partnership in 1985 naming themselves Les Voix Humaines and since that time, they have earned a formidable reputation for their performances of early music chiefly by English and French composers. Over the years, the duo has been augmented by gambists Mélisande Corriveau and Felix Deak, with violinist Jessy Dubé joining the ensemble in 2021. This newest recording on the ATMA label – humorously titled Anguille sous roche – or Something Fishy – marks a departure in personnel in that Corriveau replaces Little here in duets with Napper in a program of music by Marin Marais, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. 

The music is drawn from several sources – Couperin’s collection Les Goûts Réunis from 1724, Rameau’s only collection of chamber music published in 1741, and from various collections of Piėces de Viole by Marais. Most of the pieces are barely four minutes in length and while many of them are dance movements, others are more fanciful in nature such as Rameau’s La Coulicam (referring to the Persian conqueror Thamas Kuli Khan) and the finale, L’Anguille (the Eel).

Throughout, Napper and Corriveau produce a wonderfully resonant sound, the phrasing keenly articulated. The German poet Goethe once described chamber musicians as “having a conversation” and this is certainly the case with the intimate and intuitive approach taken by the two performers. There is nothing at all “fishy” about this recording – attractive repertoire and solid musicianship make it a welcome addition to the Baroque chamber catalogue.

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Sonata Tramontana
Carrie Krause; John Lenti
Black Bear Records BMM01 (baroquemusicmontana.bandcamp.com)

Sonata Tramontana, full of life and nuance, is such a refreshing take on the centuries-old repertoire it comprises. Conceived by Montana violinist Carrie Krause, it centres around intimate gestures, deep connection with nature and appreciation of life in all forms. It is the kind of music that is meant to be played in small spaces, flowery meadows or on riverbanks. Everything on this album works in synergy – from cover art and beautifully written liner notes, to the heartfelt performances.

The album features 17th-century music for violin and theorbo by Italian, Austrian and German composers Mealli, Schmelzer, Caccini, Biber, Böddecker and Castaldi, an elusive repertoire that remains relatively unknown to the wider audiences and brings vigour and bloom to what might be considered somewhat predictable in the realm of historical performances. Krause and her partner in crime, theorbo virtuoso John Lenti, are just fabulous, their performance is nothing short of beautiful. Krause has a way of bringing the most interesting, almost visceral textures out of her Baroque violin. Her ornamentations are lovely and complemented well by Lenti’s strong presence. 

Although passionate and meaningful, this music is unpretentious. Krause and Lenti tell stories, visit mountain peaks and valleys, drink from the lakes and creeks, dance in town squares, all the while balancing virtuosity and tranquility. The music glows and grows throughout the album, reaching for hidden nooks and corners, filling our ears with delight.

Mozart and the Organ
Anders Eidsten Dahl; Arvid Engegård; Atle Sponberg; Embrik Snerte
LAWO Classics (lawo.no)

When one thinks of Mozart, the mind can go many places, from opera to overture, sonata to symphony. One area of music with which Mozart is not often associated, however, is organ music. By all accounts, Mozart was a fine player who enjoyed the sounds of the instrument – going so far as to title it “The King of Instruments” – but the organ was not a vehicle for concertizing in Mozart’s time, instead used almost exclusively in church services.

What Mozart did write for organ falls into two categories: the first is the collection of 17 “Epistle” sonatas, chamber music written between 1772 and 1780 for masses in Salzburg, played between the reading of texts; the second is music that Mozart wrote for the “Flotenuhr” – a large grandfather clock containing a self-playing organ. There are two large-scale works from this latter category that are played quite frequently today, the Adagio and Allegro in F Minor K594 and the magnificently monumental Fantasia in F Minor K608.

Organist Anders Eidsten Dahl gives a tremendous overview of this music in Mozart and the Organ, which includes 14 of the 17 church sonatas and both K594 and K608. Recorded in the Swedish Church in Oslo, Norway featuring violinists Arvid Engegård and Atle Sponberg and bassoonist Embrik Snerte, each of the sonatas is a little gem containing its own delightful character and range of expression, compressed into a miniature form. The larger organ works are wonderfully paced and expertly interpreted, and Dahl makes Mozart’s challenging writing sound effortless and clear, especially in perilous passages where rapid and constant movement make great demands of the performer.

Mozart and the Organ is highly recommended to all who appreciate Mozart and organ music, whether together or separately. These works are masterpieces and well worth hearing, whether for the first time or the hundredth.

Mozart – Complete Piano Sonatas Vol.4
Orli Shaham
Canary Classics CC23 (canaryclassics.com)

Violinist Gil is not the only Shaham who is making waves wherever classical music is adored. His younger sister Orli has been showing the world that her steely, lyrical pianism is eminently suited to the performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. However, rather than put on a show with Mozart’s more celebrated piano music the younger Shaham is focusing her attention on Mozart’s lesser-performed sonatas en route to giving us a complete collection of the elegantly sparse works with their virtually endless supply of sparkling melodies, 

Volume 4 of the ongoing series features three of the earliest sonatas – the F Major, No.2 K280, the C Major No.1 K279 and the D Major, No.6 K284, Dürnitz. Should there be any question as to why these (early) works grace the fourth volume of Shaham’s Mozart Complete Piano Sonatas the answer lies in the simple fact that they are no less technically demanding, being as they are of great harmonic ingenuity and melodic richness, as the later sonatas.

The Allegro and (especially) the Rondeau en Polonaise: Andante movement of the Dürnitz are cases in point. The latter – in Shaham’s skilful hands – reflects a pre-eminently graceful Polish dance of Mozart’s vivid imagination. As with Volumes 1, 2 and 3 Shaham’s delicate phrasing brings out the cornucopia of Mozart’s melodic delights from end to end on this disc, but especially in the filigreed brilliance of the Dürnitz sonata.

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Mozart – Piano Concerto No.5 & Church Sonata No.17
Robert Levin; Academy of Ancient Music
AAM AAM042 (aam.co.uk)

At first glance, the music contained in this recording is somewhat perplexing: of all the incredible music Mozart composed, why choose one full piano concerto, a few juvenile transcriptions, and a church sonata that’s less than five minutes long? There is a reason, and it’s a good one.

In 1993, Robert Levin and Academy of Ancient Music founder Christopher Hogwood set out to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra, with the first of a planned 13 recordings released in 1994. Despite its noble intentions, the project was cancelled midway through, as the advent of downloadable digital music formats in the early 2000s changed the market quickly and drastically. Now, over 20 years later, AAM and Levin are continuing the cycle, scheduled for completion in June 2024, which will become the first-ever recording of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra on either modern or historical instruments.

The most aurally striking aspect of this recording is that the Piano Concerto No.5 in D Major K175 doesn’t feature a piano at all, but rather an organ. This is for several reasons, including the necessity of a pedalboard to reach the lowest notes in the keyboard part, the limited upper range, and Mozart’s use of the term Clavicembalo, generic nomenclature that encompassed a range of keyboard instruments. Rather than being impractically theoretical, however, the use of the organ provides great clarity and prominence to the solo part and blends exceedingly well with the ensemble.

The other noteworthy pieces on this recording are the Three Piano Concertos after J.C. Bach K107, through which the young Mozart learned his craft and honed his skills. Far from the masterpieces of his later years, these works were joint efforts between Wolfgang and his fathe, Leopold, who would revise his son’s transcriptions and add embellishments and other instructional guidance. Juxtaposing these early works with only slightly more mature compositions, the younger Mozart clearly learned quickly.

A valuable component of a valuable project, this recording is informative and tremendously appealing, both individually and as part of its larger set.

Clara et Robert Schumann – Chamber Music for Horn
Louis-Philippe Marsolais; David Jalbert; Philip Chiu; Cameron Crozman; Stéphane Tétreault
ATMA ACD2 2874 (atmaclassique.com/en)

Somewhere, among the writings of Marcus Aurelias, Seneca or Epictetus, there is a Stoic maxim that argues that the easier something is to do, the less meaningful and fulfilling it is for one’s personhood and soul. The Stoics, it seems, liked doing hard things. And in classical music, there is perhaps no instrument more difficult to master than the French horn (simply “the horn” among the classical intelligentsia), what with its perplexing embouchure placement and quixotic fingering positions. But, just as the inverse of the aforementioned maxim would posit that the more difficult something is to do, the more satisfying and efficacious the result, it is also a truism (or perhaps just my opinion) that a well-played French horn ranks among the most breathtaking sounds in all of music. A single listen to Clara et Robert Schumann – musique pour cor, a 2023 ATMA release featuring the exquisite horn stylings of Montreal-based musician and educator Louis-Philippe Marsolais, should illuminate why this is the case.

Evidencing an enveloping warm, round and inviting timbre on the brass instrument, Marsolais, joined by terrific pianists Philip Chiu and David Jalbert, as well as cellists Stéphane Tétreault and Cameron Crozman, foregrounds a thoughtful selection of chamber music composed by Clara and Robert Schumann, now placed into new and engaging musical contexts. Repertoire originally composed for a variety of instruments takes on an intimate sheen, sonic patina and mellow lustre when stated here on the horn, providing both the opportunity to feature the instrument more robustly as a principal solo voice, and continue the overdue and ongoing efforts taken to appropriately write Clara Schumann more prominently into the canon of classical compositions and composers.

The Very Best of Grieg
Various Artists
Naxos 8.552123 (naxos.com/Search/KeywordSearchResults/?q=8.552123)

Some time ago in Berlin, Sir Simon Rattle organized a youth orchestra of teenage students at the Philharmonie to learn and play Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King. It was fun to watch the various instruments come in one by one, adding layer upon layer to the sound, a steady crescendo and accelerando controlled superbly by Rattle culminating in a world of total mayhem and a rousing success. I suddenly realized how extraordinarily clever, intricate and difficult a piece it was. A work of genius and one of The Very Best of Grieg.

Thanks to this brilliant and comprehensive sampling from Naxos on two CDs I am totally immersed in Grieg’s music. I feel there is an unmistakable Norwegian sound world that’s immediately recognizable. Grieg is considered to be part of the struggle for national awareness and independence that swept through Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Each smaller nation had a voice, a leading composer like Liszt for Hungarians, Smetana and Dvořák for the Czechs, Enescu for the Romanians, Sibelius for the Finns etc.

Grieg was a prolific composer, but essentially a pianist, so most of his works are for solo piano, but these were often orchestrated and much colour and harmony were added to the pieces. He was a miniaturist. His strength lies in capturing immediately a simple, but incisive and beautiful melody, developing it quickly, so most of his pieces are very short, four minutes or less. He published ten books of Lyric Pieces. Some of these are very memorable, for example, The Wedding Day at Trolhaugen, Berceuse, Notturno, Butterfly, Brooklet, Cradle Song, I love but thee, To the Spring and more. Also, Songs for soprano that are devilishly difficult to sing. 

The longer works such as the Piano, Violin and Cello Sonatas and the String Quartets are represented here by just a movement. But we mustn’t miss his orchestral music: Holberg Suite, Sigurd Jorsalfar, two Peer Gynt Suites and most importantly the Piano Concerto in A Minor, one of most beautiful Romantic concertos ever written.

His contemporary, Tchaikovsky said about Grieg: “What charm, what inimitable and rich musical imagery. What interests, novelty and independence!” So true.

Lyric Pieces
Sarah M Silverman
Adhyaropa Records (sarahsilvermanmusic.com)

The adaptation of classical music within popular music in the late 20th century, such as the famous Eric Carmen homage to Rachmaninoff in All by Myself, developed into the unique genre of classical crossover made famous by Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Josh Groban and many others. While not loved equally by all – what music is? – classical crossover toes the line between tradition and accessibility, giving symphonic sounds big ticket appeal.

Described as a “genre-defying” reimagining of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces for solo piano, a collection of 66 short piano compositions written over the span of 58 years, Sarah M Silverman’s Lyric Pieces uses 11 of these works as the foundation for her own compositions, creating arrangements and adding texts and vocal melodies to create this new collection of songs. A native of Toronto, Silverman studied classical piano at the Glenn Gould School and takes a sensitive approach to her arrangements, skillfully manipulating the components of Grieg’s compositions while adding her own unique voice. Much like the way that flavours are combined in a recipe, these songs are a combination of aural ingredients, and Silverman is clearly gifted at uncovering savoury combinations.  

The songs on Lyric Pieces are not intended to be heard as the conversion of Grieg’s piano music into art song, with the existing piano solo merely reduced to an accompaniment. Rather, this music takes on an entirely different form, exploring the unique and interesting relationship between composer and artist with a result that is well worth listening to, not only for its musical beauty, but also for the way in which it pushes upon the limits of our preconceptions regarding genre and the concept of crossover.

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